Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Ashland Super DSuper D is the raddest thing to hit mountain bike racing since the Tioga disc wheel. A race that’s mostly downhill is, let’s face it, the frosted donut of bike racing. It’s a treat that should be savored. The anticipation of racing one is like standing at the counter, trying to zero in on which [...] […]
- Happy Birthday, bicycleEveryone’s bike has a birthday, but it may be a funny quirk of being a Maverick owner that I sort of celebrate mine. That may be simply because I happen to KNOW my bike’s birthday. Every Maverick comes with its own name, rather than a serial number, and the date it was built. Mine, called Basilisk, [...] […]
- Ashland Super D
- Edgy Veggie
And if you lived near the Arkansas River…?
High Country News’ Ed Quillen lives relatively close to where Christo’s “Over the River” installation would be placed over the Arkansas River. We already posted on that subject, but here’s his handy summary:
Since this involves federal land, an Environmental Impact Statement is required (paid for by Christo), The Bureau of Land Management is the lead agency. About two weeks ago, the BLM released a draft environmental statement; the Pueblo Chieftain ran a pretty good summary, and all thousand-plus pages are available on-line, with a comment deadline of Aug. 30 before the final EIS is prepared.
So where does a guy who lives near there fall on the art vs. river debate? He says he’s “agnostic.”
Goatscaping back in Boulder
A goat chews on weeds on the dam face of the Boulder Reservoir on Wednesday. | Photo: Greg Lindstrom / The Camera
Goatscaping is one of my favorite blog topics.
So you know I’m going to let you know about Boulder bringing in 300 goats to eat weeds at Boulder Reservoir, which means not using chemicals. Every time I read about this topic, I learn something new. Here’s this week’s tidbit: Read more
Boulder Farmers’ Market among “Top 10 farmers markets in U.S.”
File photo: Mark Guttridge, of Ollin Farms, at right, passes on a bag of fresh spinach to Steve Toon on the first Wednesday night of the Boulder Farmers' Market in 2010. Toon from Golden, works in Boulder and considers going to the market his hobby. | Paul Aiken / Camera
This via Top 10 farmers markets in U.S. | Gadling.com:
4. Boulder Farmers Market, Colorado
Regional farmers prove that a short growing season can still be spectacular in the form of red sunchokes, fingerling potatoes, maroon heirloom carrots, and peaches to die for from Morton's Orchards. A kaleidoscope of cut flowers and an adjoining prepared food section make this bustling market a colorful-and delicious- community hot spot.
What do you think — is #4 good enough?
Cool bottled water graphic
Check out this cool poster. Found via mi amigo Brian.
Via: Term Life Insurance
Whole Foods, WhiteWave Foods, Gaiam among top 50 employers in Boulder
Each year, the Camera’s Alicia Wallace takes a look at the top 50 Boulder county employers. This year’s private sector leaders included three companies you’d think of as green types right away, and of course plenty that have some kind of environmental initiative or another.
Whole Foods comes in at No. 13 with 712 employees, WhiteWave Foods at No. 16 with 507 employees and Gaiam at No. 41 with 231 employees.
For reference, IBM is at the top with about 2,800 employees and public sector employers remain huge in Boulder, of course, with the University of Colorado far outsizing everybody else at nearly 7,000 employees, followed by the Boulder Valley School District and St. Vrain Valley School District at about 2,700 apiece.
Fifth grade wildlife art contest winners!
Hey! It’s a follow-up guest post from Deanna Williams, USFS Wildlife Biologist & Angela Mundt, USFS Wildlife Technician!
In an effort to promote awareness of watershed protection, wildlife conservation and the rules of the trails, the Boulder Ranger District of the Araphoe-Roosevelt National Forest held an art contest for local fifth-grade students. The winning art will be incorporated into educational trail signs.
The project was inspired by efforts to repair miles of a sensitive stream-side area that had been polluted by undesignated trails causing damage to plants, wildlife and introducing pollutants into the Boulder Creek watershed.
Winning artwork by:
Shane Kaiser–Emerald Elementary | art teacher Jenny Weich
Cutter Fugett–Crestview Elementary | art teacher Wendy Rochman
Jordan Holderby–Crestview Elementary | art teacher Wendy Rochman
Erin Watt–Whittier Inernational elementary | art teacher Jennifer Shepherd
Morgan long–Nederland Elementary | art teacher Jessica Bernstein
Noah Cadigan-Deutsch–Whittier International Elementary | art teacher Jennifer Shepherd
BBC slams Boulder: green, but for all the cars and coal
That frog was right — it’s not easy bein’ green. Boulder knows it and, apparently, so does the BBC, which did a story on Boulder’s efforts to reduce its pollution and poor energy habits — and while it’s very short, it’s not very flattering.
But for all the solar panels arrayed on the roof of the municipal building on the corner of Broadway and Canyon, the roar of traffic tells a different story.
The people of Boulder are just as wedded to their cars as they are anywhere else in America.
Read the rest at the BBC’s site.
Annual early marmot love fest results in population explosion
Wired Science reports that marmots have been getting steadily fatter since our fine country’s bicentennial and that, lately, they’ve also been getting busy earlier and earlier in the new millennium. That’s resulting in a marmot population explosion:
Increasingly, short winters have meant that yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory now emerge 20 days earlier from their seven- to eight-month hibernation than they did in the late ’70s. This, in turn, has meant more time to get fat over the summer, less fat loss over the winter and, over the past decade, a huge spike in their survival and reproductive success.
“We believe that gradual change in climate crosses a threshold, and causes abrupt changes in population,” said biologist Arpat Ozgul from the Imperial College of London, lead author of a study on the marmots being published July 21 in Nature.
This led me (and my traveling partner) to think back to a trip we recently took down to Taos, N.M., during which we encountered an interesting front-page piece in the Valley Courier newspaper of southern Colorado. I can’t find it online, so I’ll just post the two photos I happened to take of the story…
From the pages of the Valley Courier...
And the closing sentences… Read more
Moving CU students = lots of garbage
How much waste is produced by the students moving in and out of Boulder each year? Well, enough to warrant a lot of extra garbage trucks, apparently.
The requirements mandate that landlords in the University Hill and Goss/Grove neighborhoods, known for high concentrations of student rental properties, sign up for additional trash pickup during designated times in the spring and fall. Additional trash pickup, already required from May 4-10 this year, will be required from July 31 through Aug. 30.
Seriously, these are college students. They had Craigslist before they had braces. Figure it out, kids! Or consider investing in summer storage!
Nokero, solar-powered light bulb, invented by Denver man
Colorado native Stephen Katsaros wants his bulb to brighten up places without electricity. (Leah Millis, The Denver Post)
As soon as he saw the first molds of the bulb coming out of the factory, Katsaros, 37, quit the legal firm where he worked as a patent agent and devoted himself full-time to Nokero.
His plan is to target countries such as India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, where hundreds of millions rely on expensive, carbon-spewing gas lamps but income is high enough to afford a $15 lamp. Demand is higher in places such as Ethiopia, but the population is too poor to afford the lamp, Katsaros says.
“This is not a charity,” he says. “We are using capitalism as a method to improve people’s lives.”
The Nokero made a few waves in the tech blogosphere when it was unveiled a little over a month ago. A big part of the pitch is helping people quit burning kerosene for light, according to a post by SmartPlanet’s Andrew Nusca: Read more
